Skip to content

Orange County Indexed

Chronology

Key events from Orange County history: 100 highlights to start, then the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, each connected to the index. A storyline gathers many dated events into one history, such as the Regulator crisis.

Search and filters

Search and filters · 1 active

20 dated events match your filters.

Searched the full chronology of 6,171 dated events and 63 storylines, not only the highlights. Showing 1–20.Back to highlights

Earliest first. Scroll sideways, or use the arrows.

20 dated events
1771Colonial and Regulator years
  1. Colonial and Regulator years · 1680–1774
  2. Willie Jones is made Tryon's aide-de-camp on the march into Orange County

    Appointment, election or service · Orange County

    Jones marched into Orange County with Governor William Tryon's colonial militia and was appointed Tryon's aide-de-camp on May 15, 1771, the day before Tryon defeated the Regulators at Alamance. Several days later he was sent to raid the plantation of the Regulator leader Herman Husband.

    People: Herman Husband · William Tryon

  3. Revolution and early republic · 1775–1799
  4. Provincial Congress at Hillsborough orders its journal printed by James Davis

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    The congress meeting at Hillsborough directed that its proceedings be delivered to James Davis, the province's printer and a delegate for the town of New Bern, who was desired to print them and send a copy to each member. It also named a committee to state and settle his account for services done as printer to the province.

    Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

    People: Willie Jones · Thomas Person

  5. The Provincial Congress at Hillsborough adopts a test for its members to sign

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    On August 21, 1775 the congress sitting at Hillsborough named Allen Jones to a committee of seven to prepare a Test to be signed by its members. The committee reported on August 23 and the Test was read, approved, ordered entered on the journal and signed. Subscribers professed allegiance to the King while denying that Parliament could tax them.

    Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

    People: Thomas Burke · William Hooper · Robert Howe · Willie Jones · John Penn · Maurice Moore

  6. Provincial Congress at Hillsborough names a Committee of Secrecy to procure arms

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    On August 23, 1775 the congress sitting at Hillsborough resolved that its president, Mr. Harnett, Mr. Caswell, Mr. Hewes, Mr. Nash, Mr. Willie Jones and Mr. Young be a Committee of Secrecy for procuring arms and ammunition. The committee was to report what sums of money would be needed for the purpose.

    Part of Third Provincial Congress at Hillsborough, 1775 · 15 events

    People: Richard Caswell · Willie Jones · Cornelius Harnett

  7. Provincial Congress at Hillsborough elects a Provincial Council to govern between sessions

    Appointment, election or service · Hillsborough

    On September 9, 1775, the Congress at Hillsborough elected a thirteen-member Provincial Council to direct the army and militia during its recess: Samuel Johnston for the province at large and two members for each of the six districts, among them Abner Nash and James Coor for New Bern and Thomas Person and John Kinchen for Hillsborough.

    People: Samuel Johnston · Samuel Ashe · Willie Jones · Samuel Spencer · Waightstill Avery · Thomas Person · Cornelius Harnett

  8. George Micklejohn swears allegiance to the state and is released from parole

    Law, policy or court · Halifax (for Hillsborough's rector)

    Taken prisoner after Moore's Creek, the Hillsborough rector was paroled on May 3, 1776 to Perquimans County, then ordered moved there in July when he was found still in Orange. On November 24 he took the oath of allegiance before the Halifax Congress and was discharged, and he later lived at Thomas Person's Goshen in Granville.

    People: Thomas Person · Willie Jones

  9. Hillsborough Convention declines to ratify the Constitution

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    Meeting at St. Matthew's Church in Hillsborough, delegates defeated a motion to ratify the Constitution 184 to 84 on August 1, 1788. On August 2 they voted to neither ratify nor reject it until a declaration of rights and amendments went before Congress.

    People: Samuel Johnston · Richard Dobbs Spaight · Willie Jones · James Iredell

    Subject: St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church

  10. Willie Jones moves that the Hillsborough Convention vote on the Constitution at once

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    Jones moved that the question on the federal Constitution be put immediately, arguing that members had long since made up their minds and that a long sitting would waste public money. Thomas Person seconded him and James Iredell objected. The convention took up the Constitution clause by clause instead, debating it for eleven days.

    Part of Hillsborough ratification convention, 1788

    People: James Iredell · Thomas Person

  11. The convention resolves itself into a committee of the whole with Elisha Battle in the chair

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    After David Caldwell's attempt to fix governing maxims for the debate was set aside, the delegates went into committee of the whole, Elisha Battle presiding, and began reading the proposed Constitution clause by clause. The committee sat each day through July 31 except Sunday, July 27.

    People: James Iredell · Willie Jones · David Caldwell

  12. Willie Jones's previous question carries 183 to 84, setting aside Johnston's ratification motion

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    Jones answered Johnston by moving the previous question, meaning to bring in his own resolution calling for amendments before North Carolina adopted the Constitution. After long argument the committee carried it 183 to 84, and its chairman, James Kenan, reported resolutions not yet put in form.

    People: Willie Jones · Samuel Johnston

  13. The committee of the whole adopts Willie Jones's resolution for a declaration of rights and amendments before ratification

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    After a day of debate on the resolution, Davie asked that the amendments be taken one at a time, but the committee approved the resolution as it stood by a large majority. Kenan reported it to the convention, which ordered it to lie on the table overnight.

    People: Willie Jones · William Richardson Davie

  14. Iredell's motion to ratify and recommend amendments afterward is defeated 184 to 84

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    Declaring all debate at an end and the majority irresistible, James Iredell moved that the convention ratify the Constitution and recommend amendments afterward, so that the minority's view would stand on the journal. The yeas and nays were taken and the motion lost, 84 to 184.

    People: James Iredell · Willie Jones

  15. The majority votes to keep Iredell's ratification motion off the journal, then agrees to let it be offered as an amendment

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    When Samuel Spencer moved to concur with the committee's report, Iredell moved to postpone it for his own resolution, and the house fell into confusion, with Whitmill Hill warning that the minority would secede. Willie Jones carried a motion that Iredell's motion had no right to a place on the journal, but while the yeas and nays were being taken the two sides agreed that Spencer would withdraw and Iredell would offer his resolution as an amendment.

    People: James Iredell · Willie Jones

  16. The convention adopts a declaration of rights and twenty-six amendments to be laid before Congress before ratification

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    On Thomas Person's motion the convention concurred with its committee of the whole, resolving that a declaration of rights of twenty articles and twenty-six amendments to the most ambiguous and exceptionable parts of the Constitution be laid before Congress and a convention of the states before North Carolina would ratify. On Willie Jones's motions it also recommended a state impost matching whatever Congress laid, urged redemption of the paper currency, and ordered the resolutions sent to Congress and the twelve other states.

    People: Willie Jones · Archibald Maclaine · Thomas Person · William Richardson Davie

  17. The convention directs its president to send its resolutions to Congress and the other twelve states

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    A unanimous resolution asked Samuel Johnston to forward the resolution on the Constitution, with the impost and paper money resolutions, to Congress and to the executives of the twelve other states.

    People: Samuel Johnston · Willie Jones

  18. The convention recommends that North Carolina collect an impost for the use of Congress

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    Having neither ratified nor rejected the Constitution, the convention adopted by a large majority Willie Jones's resolution asking the legislature to lay a duty on goods imported into North Carolina whenever Congress laid an impost in the ratifying states, and to pay the money to Congress.

    People: Willie Jones

  19. The convention unanimously urges the Assembly to redeem the state's paper currency

    Law, policy or court · Hillsborough

    On Willie Jones's motion, seconded by James Galloway, the convention asked the General Assembly to retire the state's paper currency as quickly as the people's circumstances allowed.

    People: Willie Jones

  20. A second convention at Fayetteville ratifies the Constitution 195 to 77

    Law, policy or court · Fayetteville

    Sixteen months after the Hillsborough convention withheld ratification, a second convention that opened at Fayetteville on the third Monday of November 1789 voted to adopt and ratify the Constitution, 195 to 77, and adjourned the next day. Congress had by then sent the states the amendments that became the Bill of Rights.

    People: Samuel Johnston · Willie Jones

  21. Willie Jones views New Hope Chapel Hill as a university commissioner and signs for the site

    Founding or opening · Chapel Hill

    Jones was one of six commissioners the trustees sent to fix the seat of the university. On November 5, 1792 he handed the commissioners Joel Lane's offer of 640 acres in Wake County; the commissioners then went on to view New Hope Chapel Hill in Orange County, where they took offers of 1,390 acres and about 798 pounds. Jones signed the report.

    People: James Hogg · David Stone · Joel Lane

  22. Orange County leads the state in pledges to the university

    Statistic or record · Orange County

    By July, Davie and Willie Jones reported 909 pounds 4 shillings pledged in Orange against 804 pounds in Halifax, out of $6,723 statewide. William Cain and Walter Alves of Orange were among the three largest subscribers at $200 each, and Jesse Neville of Orange gave $100.

    People: Willie Jones · Walter Alves · William Richardson Davie

Suggest a correction to an entry →

A dated event is a fact, filed on the page of the subject it belongs to: a person, a place, a theme, or a named event or history. Pages are subjects, with their own works and sources; the Place, community, or institution filter also gathers the institutions that recur in the entries without a page of their own. The page opens on the highlights; a search or any filter looks through every dated event and storyline, and each filter’s counts say how many entries choosing it would show alongside the others. A storyline is a longer history that gathers related dated events, and each storyline’s page lists its own. Counts give dated events and storylines separately. Dates come from the sources named on the cards and from the index’s event pages; where sources disagree, the card follows the county records. Entries marked approximate or needing research say so on the card; the rest were checked against the source named on it. The correction link under the entries opens the contact form; name the entry and its date and the Friends will check the source. Suggest an event →

Compiled and maintained by the Friends of the Orange County Public Library from county records, the sources named on each card, and the index’s event pages. Last updated October 2, 2026.

Two mice reading back to back against a leaf, with the hand-lettered words Friends of the Orange County Public Library
Illustration by Caldecott Medalist Matthew Cordell, gifted to the Friends 2026